Searching for Harry review of Nightfall Gardens

Summary:

What I love most about this book is how beautifully disgusting it is, and I mean that in a good way! Nightfall Gardens would be the outcome if Tim Burton, Lemony Snicket and JK Rowling all decided to write a book together. Actually, I can picture Tim Burton creating this film, and it would be excellent.

Nightfall Gardens follows the somewhat exciting and somewhat tragic story of two siblings, Lily and Silas Blackwood.  Lily and Silas are travelling with their parents as an acting group, when Lily is kidnapped by her uncle Jonquil and taken to her ancestral home of Nightfall Gardens. Silas watches his sister get kidnapped and follows her and their uncle to the most dark of all places.

The Blackwoods are cursed, especially the Blackwood women. They are cursed to protect a home and gardens filled with dark creatures found only in nightmares.  Lily is the last Blackwood woman and if she dies, the evil will be released upon the world.

After realizing that he is being followed, Jonquil begins training Silas to become one of the nightriders, a band of men who keep the evil of the three gardens from escaping.

Follow these two brave children as they fight against three-headed giant dogs, nasty witches, and giant spiders on a quest to find a way to reverse the curse and trap all the evil forever.  This is a book to buy if you love Harry Potter.

Quality: 16/17 Lightning Bolts

• Grammar 1 LB

• Story Flow 4 LB

At first, Nightfall Gardens starts out too quick for my taste. I felt I didn’t get the chance to understand what kind of characters Lily and Silas were before they were snatched up and taken to Nightfall Gardens.

However, as the story progressed I quickly realized why the book started this way. The highly action packed story takes you from start to finish before you can even blink. I was so engrossed in what was happening that I devoured this book.

The quickness of the book does not keep you from learning about the two main characters. It is through going to Nightfall Gardens and having this huge burden placed upon their shoulders that we learn of Lily and Silas’ true nature.

• Style 4 LB

The macabre style that this book is written in is what makes it so much fun to read. Somehow Houston is able to take such dark, grotesque and grisly scenes and make them light and seem as if this is something that happens everyday.

• Character Development 3 LB

The character development in this book is lacking a little. The character Lily could have especially been developed more. Lily goes from being a vain girl who dreams of stardom, to quickly being a heroine that wants to save the world from the evils lurking in Nightfall Gardens. I feel that there should have been more of a transition period leading up to her heroism.

• Story 4 LB

A very beautiful story that is very easy to follow and easy to read.

Compared to Harry Potter 17/21 Lightning Bolts

• Did I fall in love with the characters enough to cry at their deaths or shout in happiness at their triumphs? 3 LB

I was definitely rooting for Silas to make it through the gardens as he tries to save his uncle. However, when his uncle come back from a quest on the brink of death, I do not feel for him.  This story is gorgeously written but the characters are lacking somewhat.

• Were there amazingly planned hidden clues throughout the book foreshadowing the end? 3 LB

I believe there were clues being dropped for the reader throughout the book, but I am not for certain. I feel this is particularly true when Lily is discovering the hidden secrets of the house. I think that her discoveries are going to become very important in the sequels to this book.

• Twists that you never saw coming? 2 LB

No big twists happened in this book. The biggest twist of them all would be how abruptly this book ends without concluding anything. However I am halfway through the second book and twists are on their way! This first book I feel was more to set the stage for the action and excitement of the second two books.

• Was a world created that made you want to pack up your bags and move into it? Was it so realistic that your felt it could actually be true?  4 LB

This may sound weird, but I really want to meet the slug creature maid and mummy butler! They were my two favorite characters of this book and they were really thought out. Polly the maid leaves slime wherever she goes, and the butler can barely move without emitting some ancient dust from under his bandages.

• Magic that is convincing and original. 4 LB

Most of the magic that occurs in this book comes from the manor and it is very original. The manor definitely has a Hogwarts feel to it, but a kind of Hogwarts where all the ghosts are trying to kill you and almost all unopened doors should stay unopened.  I would love explore this haunting place!

• Would I read the sequel?  1 LB (I am already reading it!)